Legislature Taps Rand, State Auditor to Review NextGen 911 Project

The Legislature is giving the state’s long-running Next-Generation 911 (NG911) project about $141 million with the state budget — but it’s also adding several new oversight mechanisms to the project.

The project, which first received funding to transition the state to an NG911 system circa 2018, is in a transitory phase. Last year the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) decided to scrap the initial plan to implement NG911 with a regional approach — after the state had already spent some $450 million on that approach.

NG911 is a modernization of legacy 911 systems that uses Internet Protocol, allowing for modern communications such as video and texting.

Now Cal OES aims for a statewide approach, but the Legislature has effectively told the agency to wait before moving in that direction. The budget includes:

• $2 million for the RAND Corp. to perform an “independent technical evaluation” of the project — during a June 29 hearing, Assembly Budget Committee Consultant Bernie Orozco told lawmakers that the preliminary report would come in December, followed by a final report in the new year.
• A prohibition on Cal OES taking action that would prevent a regional approach to the project — entering into a long-term contract with a vendor for the project, for example — for the time being.
• $1 million for the State Auditor to audit the previous work done on the project, likely performed in December or January.
• A requirement for Cal OES to provide quarterly progress reports on the project to the Legislature.

The moves signal a desire for caution on the part of the Legislature when it comes to dramatically pivoting the project’s approach. However, the majority of the money will be available for local assistance to public safety answering points to begin upgrading their networks as soon as they’re ready.

Cal OES has already awarded a “bridge contract” to Atos to sustain current operations on the project; part of the current plan is to prioritize upgrades in the Los Angeles area ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games.